China Mail, on two separate and distinct days, but the said plea although pleaded to the said two counts, does not justify the libellous matters set forth in either of these counts; That the Defendant has introduced such a mass of irrelevant matters into his said plea, that it is impossible to comprehend with any degree of certainty whether the same is intended to apply to the whole Information, or to either of the said counts as distinguished therefrom, which mode of pleading inevitably tends to prejudice the fair trial of the said information on the merits; That the said plea amounts to the general issue; That the Defendant in and by his said plea has attempted to put in issue, to be tried by a Jury, a matter of right in no sense within the province of a Jury to decide, that is to say, the right of His Most Faithful Majesty The King of Portugal to hold the territory of Macao, in opposition to the rights of the Government of Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China; That the proper course for the Defendant to have adopted in pleading to the said Information was, to have alleged the truth of the matters charged therein, and further to have alleged that it was for the public benefit that the said matters charged should have been published, setting forth the particular fact or facts by reason whereof it was for the public benefit that the said matters charged should have been published; That the omission to do this in the manner suggested, and as provided by the Statute in that behalf, renders the plea bad and insufficient, and disables the Attorney General from replying generally to such plea, denying the whole thereof, as he is entitled to do under and by virtue of the Statute aforesaid; And that the said plea is in other respects bad in law, informal, and insufficient, &c.
Wherefore, for want of a sufficient plea of the Defendant, by him secondly above pleaded, the said Acting Attorney General prays judgment in respect of such second plea.
REGINA . SAINT.
JUDGMENT.
(Signed) HENRY JOHN BALL,
Acting Atty. Genl.
PRINTED AT THE CHINA MAGAZINE OFFICE, 7, PEDDER'S WHARF, HONGKONG,
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